Phoenix face huge test without injured skipper
Wellington Phoenix will be without captain Ulises Davila for today’s clash against A-League leaders Melbourne City – and potentially the rest of the regular season – hindering their chances of pulling off a much-needed upset.
The star Mexican import and team’s leading scorer with seven goals injured his hamstring in last week’s 0-0 draw with Adelaide United.
Davila has subsequently been ruled out of today’s trip to AAMI Park and is likely to miss the Phoenix’s long-awaited homecoming game against Western United next weekend as well.
‘‘He’s got a slight strain in his hamstring. He won’t be playing this weekend, that’s for sure,’’ Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay said.
‘‘It’s a massive blow for us. He’s a very influential player for us. He’s scored some very good goals and he helps the team to get results, so it’s a massive blow for us to lose our captain at the same time and one of our better players.’’
Grade one hamstring strains can typically take between three and eight weeks to heal, but Talay said the Phoenix were doing everything they can to get Davila back before the end of the season.
‘‘He got a little PRP [plateletrich plasma] jab done to make it move a little quicker, and he’s been off-feet for 48 hours once he’s got the jab, but we’ll see how he progresses after that.
‘‘We’re hoping that he does come back and he does get to play a game by the end of the season.’’
The Phoenix are one of 10 teams still in the hunt for a spot in the A-League finals with five games remaining, but badly need a win against City to bring them back within touching distance of the top six.
They are currently ninth, four points adrift of sixth-placed Brisbane Roar, who have caught up with 21 games.
In contrast, City are flying high at the top of the table, nine points clear of nearest rivals Macarthur.
They are unbeaten in their past eight and have scored a whopping 25 goals during that period, which started with a late 3-2 win over the Phoenix in early April.
Talay said the Phoenix were not shying away from the stern challenge that awaited them.
‘‘They’re flying. Their strikers are scoring goals. But these are the games you want to be involved in. It’s a must-win now for us until the end of the season,’’ he said.
‘‘You look at the table, it’s very compressed for those top-six spots. Obviously, Melbourne City have pulled away but everyone else is in the mix, and if you look at the results everyone is a bit hesitant, there have been a lot of draws and teams not wanting to lose.
‘‘But for us, we’ve got five games to finish off and every game is a must-win game for us.
‘‘We’ll be going there for three points. We don’t fear anybody. Every team that we’ve played we’ve been very competitive and last time we played City in Wollongong we lost 3-2, but I thought we played a very good game, so the opportunity is there for the players. It’s up to them what they want to get out of the season.’’
The recently returned Reno Piscopo is the most likely candidate to replace the sidelined Davila, even though Talay said he is not capable of playing a full 90min as he continued his own comeback from injury.
After back-to-back 0-0 draws, the Phoenix’s preparations for today’s game have centred largely around the attacking third.
‘‘The Brisbane game I think the pitch was a leveller for Brisbane, they’re a very defensive side, even though I thought we created enough chances in the second half to score and win the game, but I don’t think Adelaide was one of our better games that we’ve played this season.
‘‘Although defensively I thought we were very disciplined – during the season we’ve leaked a lot of easy goals that have hurt us and I think we’ve fixed that side of the game – but to be honest the other side of the game we were scoring two-three goals a game, so that’s one thing we’ve worked on this week.
‘‘Melbourne City like to play open football so the opportunities will be there.’’
Despite losing star man Davila, the Phoenix have been boosted by the return of midfielder Cameron Devlin and defender Louis Fenton, after serving respective one-game suspensions for yellow card accumulation.